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This morning Bottlerock dropped its 2016 lineup and nice one for Napa Valley. Three big headliners in Stevie Wonder, Red Hot Chili Peppers and Florence + The Machine. The return of The Lumineers will be welcomed along with big names like Death Cab For Cutie, Lenny Kravitz and younger bands like Walk The Moon, Grouplove and Misterwives. Michael Franti is back and is a great show for Bottlerock, Cold War Kids should be received well like Cage The Elephant in 2015 and smaller acts like Houndmouth, X Ambassadors, The Suffers, San Fermin, Coleman Hell, Langhorne Slim, Son Little, etc. Congrats to the Latitude 38 Ent team on another solid lineup for Napa Valley.

They saying time flies when you’re having fun and that must apply to me with music because it took me a bit to remember just how much great music was released this year. With the countdown to 2016 just a couple weeks away I wanted to put together some of my favorite songs, albums, concerts, and moments in music this past year.

Today I wanted to share a list of albums I have been digging throughout the year. I know I’ve forgotten some but this list gives

It’s Friday, the jump off and before we race into May next week here’s a playlist to get your through to the weekend! Many artists you have heard of with fresh materials, a few newbies and a couple surprises. Hope you enjoy!

TGIF! And with that comes some music to lead you into the weekend. Here is the March 2015 playlist for you to click play and listen to. Features new music from Muse, Alabama Shakes, JEFF The Brotherhood, Penguin Prison, Mumford & Sons as well as Django Django, Nate Ruess, Curtis Harding plus great new tracks from buzz acts like Leon Bridges, Kaleo and the buzziest of all, Tobias Jesso Jr.

I’ll be back after SXSW to bring some more new music to you! Until then, rock out with this playlist and catch you on the flip side!

I can sum my Lollapalooza experience up quite easy: an incredible time with great friends.

Any chance I get to return to the city of my birth I’m excited but add in a music festival with 100,000 people in Grant Park and you crank it up to 11. This year I approached Lolla a bit different and wasn’t running from show to show. I took the pace down a little and really stepped back to enjoy it a bit more. I was late to some shows which was unfortunate but at the end of the three days I was still stoked about who I saw and just wonder what may have happened if the Saturday afternoon storm evacuation didn’t cancel acts like Alabama Shakes, The Temper Trap, B.o.B. and the band I was most hoping to see, The Dunwells. Props to C3 Presents for acting swiftly to recover and push back start times, reschedule bands like fun., Chairlift, Empires, etc. C3 also did an incredible job of scheduling overall forcing the crowd to pick and choose like I’ve never seen. When you are looking at a mile walk from the Bud Light Stage to the Red Bull Stage, it’s just not really possible to get everywhere you want to be unless you are a marathon sprinter.

Headliners: I have to be honest, you shouldn’t have gone to Lollapalooza just for the headliners. Talented musicians indeed (and ones I like) but you can’t compare The Black Keys, Black Sabbath, Avicii, Justice, Jack White and Red Hot Chili Peppers to last year’s of Coldplay, Muse, My Morning Jacket, Eminem, Foo Fighters and Deadmau5.

My First Show: O Rappa

My Final Show: Technically Jack White but essentially I caught all four final acts bumping to Kaskade, hearing Childish Gambino drop “Heartbeat” and hearing one of my favorite Justice songs, “On’n’On.”

My Moment of Joy: Seeing the rambunctious overfilled crowd on hand for Of Monsters and Men Sunday night time slot.

My Favorite Show: Didn’t actually happen at Lollapalooza. Off-site Of Monsters and Men show on the rooftop of a condo tower for Gilt City’s ‘Better Than Backstage’ party. Thanks to my friend Nicole for making it happen! Seriously one of the top three bands I was dying to see at the festival and here I am just inches away as they rocked out. A tip of the hat to an amazing group of musicians doing big things.

Best Overall Show: Die Antwoord, my second time seeing them and this was just flat out awesome. They had the crowd mesmerized and loving every moment of this high energy set.

Best Bud Light Stage Show: For me, Passion Pit – flat out great performance but easily it was Florence + The Machine, she had at least half the festival goers on hand to hear that incredible voice. I remember the first time I saw her was in a small tent at Bonnaroo and she owned Lollapalooza. Say hello to next year’s festival circuit headliner.

Best Red Bull Stage Show(s): I guess The Black Keys, those guys are just so honed in and solid in front of big crowds.

Best Playstation Stage Show(s): Die Antwoord, Gary Clark Jr.

Best Sony Stage Show: Last year I spent the most time at this stage. This year I only really saw Miike Snow.

Best Google Play Stage Show: The Gaslight Anthem, the Jersey rockers did exactly that making the most of their 45 minute set.

Best BMI Stage Show: Well the only one I actually got to this year was Outasight and he had the crowd bouncing.

Best Perry’s Stage Show: In truth, I didn’t even see a show here, passed by a lot but didn’t get caught up in the pandemonium but the stage setup that may have been the best show. LED bonanza creating quite the visuals.

Overall Stage With The Best Performances: Hands down Google Play, they stacked the deck with this stage and fans responded packing all of these shows. Big time acts like The War on Drugs, Blind Pilot, SBTRKT, Band of Skulls, Dawes, Wale, GIVERS, fun., Washed Out Twin Shadow, Frank Ocean, Of Monsters and Men, The Gaslight Anthem, Hey Rosetta!, The Big Pink, Childish Gambino

Biggest Surprise: How much I enjoyed the Metric show.

Best Legend Show: I just have to say Black Sabbath for the sheer fact that I saw Black Sabbath, even if Ozzy is starring into gigantic teleprompters and not sounding too good.

Random Moment(s) Of Awesomeness: fun. show being rescheduled after the Saturday evacuation and just owning the crowd for a 35 minute set filled with their hits.

Most Entertaining Show:Die Antwoord, if you’ve never seen them, you can’t help but be entertained

Most Disappointing Moment: not getting to see a bunch of acts I was super excited to see for the first time like Milo Greene, First Aid Kit and The Dunwells (the rain ruined that one for me) and some of my favorites like GIVERS, Chancellor Warhol, DAWES.

Next Big Thing: I want to say The Dunwells but the evacuation for the storm forced a cancellation of this show. And I sincerely hope more people discover Michael Kiwanuka; he’s got an incredible voice, great songs and is an absolute treat to listen to live.

Giving it a shot: The Devil Makes Three and I absolutely loved them.

Top Party: I’m giving this to Passion Pit because it was entertaining, full of energy and well I am a fan.

Funky Good Time Show: Gary Clark Jr.

Band I Was Sad To Miss: Sigur Ros

Best Intro: Rahm Emanuel introducing The Black Keys

What Would Have Been Great: Having less scheduling conflicts so I could see more bands

Top Moment: Choosing to skip Milo Greene, Chancellor Warhol, JEFF The Brotherhood and GIVERS for a once in a lifetime moment with Of Monsters and Men on the rooftop with the Chicago skyline serving as the background.

Best Festival Eat/Drink: Uncorked Wine Lounge

Best Place To Cool Off: I didn’t really find one and it was hot and humid

Biggest Waste of Time: The Toyota Crane game thing that totally wasn’t a crane

Evacuation Nation: Wow, getting 100,000 people out of the park in approximately 30 minutes before the torrential storm came in was pretty incredible. Holed up in a steamy Irish Pub with $6 Bud Lights wasn’t ideal but it was festive and one of those random things you won’t soon forget.

Clutch Move: Popping out a little early on Friday night to head over to Big Star, my favorite taco and mescal joint in town.

Tip For Next Year: Coming a day early again and leaving on a later flight on Monday.

More Tips: drink water, more water, sunscreen is your second best friend after water, if you see someone struggling give them a hand or find someone to help.

And at first glance what a great one it is. October 12-14 Zilker Park, Austin, Texas, plan to be there for Austin City Limits. Neil Young and Crazy Horse, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Black Keys, Jack White, Florence + The Machine, The Avett Brothers, Avicii, Bassnectar, The Rotts and Jack White headline the final festival of the season. Add in acts like Esperanza Spalding, Alabama Shakes, The Lumineers, Michael Kiwanuka, First Aid Kit, Gary Clark Jr, He’s My Brother She’s My Sister, Dry The River, Royal Teeth, Colorfeels and more; WOW!

It should be one hot, fun weekend in Chicago for Lollapalooza. Late last night the much-anticipated lineup for Lollapalooza 2012 was released and C3 Presents and Perry Farrell definitely did not disappoint. The headliners were pretty much shoe-ins with the exception of Black Sabbath and At The Drive-In (talk about reunion acts) two bands I can’t say anyone really expected. RHCP, The Black Keys, Jack White, Florence + The Machine are all doing their fair share of festival headlining this summer. Add Justice and Avicii to that list and it is going to be a heck of a good time.

But even more thrilling was seeing some really awesome smaller acts tabbed to play; like First Aid Kit, Bombay Bicycle Club, GIVERS, Michael Kiwanuka, The Growlers, Hey Rossetta!, JEFF The Brotherhood, The Jezabels, Moon Taxi, Chancellor Warhol, The War On Drugs.

Also I have to say I love the logo used on the lineup poster, YEAR OF THE DRAGON.

I’d say in the last year, year and a half Florence + The Machine have taken America by storm so it’s no surprise that Bonnaroo is the latest place Florence Welch and her band will be performing at. I am fascinated by Welch’s voice and the sound she projects. All I can think to myself is WOW. Should be quite the show to see.

Finally the Bonnaroo schedule has been released! Click HERE to take a look. As expected when the schedule came out, there are many many conflicts and overlaps with artists and set times. Of course for me there are the staple artists that are marked as must sees (Widespread Panic, String Cheese Incident, Buffalo Springfield, Mumford & Sons, Gregg Allman, Robert Plant, G. Love, The Black Keys, Warren Haynes, etc.) and after that, time to figure out the rest. Who knows, my ideal schedule today may end up being completely different when I arrive. All I know is there is a ton of great music and I can’t wait to be surrounded by 90,000 of my new closest friends.

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